(CLEVELAND, OHIO) – Elaine Johnson, owner of Harper’s Fabric & Quilt Co. and one of Husqvarna Viking sewing machine company’s top dealers, is a woman who means business – literally. On August 13, Johnson received the “Women who mean Business” award from the Kansas City Business Journal, honoring 25 noteworthy Kansas City area businesswomen.
“I am honored to be receiving this award,” Johnson said. Honored and deserving. Johnson has come a long way since she began working part-time while teaching and operating a Buttonhole business in Harper’s.
“I started a part-time business in Harper’s teaching and operating Buttonhole Inc. in 1982 after moving back to Kansas City from the east coast,” Johnson said. “I purchased Harper’s Fabrics in 1994 from Mr. Dean Harper. It was up to me to direct the store into a successful future.”
There were, however, roadblocks in Johnson’s path. “In 1998 I couldn’t afford the rent proposed by the management company and was faced with closing my retail store.” Johnson evaluated every possible situation. “I had to make tough decisions including whether I should move an established business to a new location and change the shopping habits of two generations of customers.”
For Harper’s Fabrics, the move paid off.
“I decided to add new merchandising to gain a larger per square footage return on my dollar investment and to move to downtown Overland Park, Kansas,” Johnson, who now has five stores, said. “Along with the move, we added premier sewing machines to our mix of creative products.”
With the addition of Husqvarna Viking machines, the store changed even more. “Much training had to take place to accommodate the technology our new customers would expect,” Johnson said. “Husqvarna Viking also asked Harper’s to expand into Jo-Ann Fabric Stores with our sewing machine projects.”
Over the next four years Johnson opened four new Harper’s Sewing Machine Co. stores inside Jo-Ann Fabrics.
“Expansion has been a learning process for me,” Johnson said. Her next project is moving to a 4000 sq. ft. ‘super store’ in the historic downtown of Overland Park, a space big enough to accommodate a larger Viking showroom and classroom.
With this main location moving Johnson also had to learn how to manage a staff that is multiplying quickly.
“We had four employees in 1998. Now we have thirty wonderful women working for us,” Johnson said.
She credits those around her for making Harper’s a success. “Our staff and customers are the reason Harper’s continues to be successful. Without them we wouldn’t be having fun anymore!”
September 21, 2004